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Reflection for Easter Sunday |
By Jean Stokan and Scott Wright
Acts 10:34a, 36-43 ~ Psalm 118 ~ Colossians 3:1-4/1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 ~ John 20:1-18
ROLL AWAY THE STONE... SEE THE GLORY OF GOD!
We have come to the end of our Lenten journey and to the beginning of our Easter journey. There are many beautiful stories of Easter, stories of resurrection and new life, like today’s Gospel, when Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. This is truly a story of living as a resurrected being in the midst of life’s crosses: Mary, whom Christ forgave; Mary at the foot of the cross; Mary, whom the risen Christ encounters in the garden.
As Peter tells it, this Peter who denied Christ three times: “You know the message he sent to the people of Israel . . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses. . . . They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day” (Acts 10:36, 38-40).
We, too, like Peter, are called to be witnesses to this new life in Christ and to live as resurrected beings amidst life’s crosses.
We begin our Easter journey, then, with eyes wide open, to the risen Christ in our midst. We renew our commitment to bear witness to nonviolence and the peace of Christ, Pax Christi. We know that our journey is only beginning, but we know, too, that we are not alone. We are surrounded by that cloud of witnesses who journey with us, and we are strengthened by their presence. We are no longer afraid, we have bread for the journey, and we carry the joy of the Gospel in our hearts.
Like the risen Christ, we, too, bear our wounds in our hands and feet and in our hearts. But now these wounds have become life-giving wounds, wounds that bind us more deeply to Christ’s suffering in the world and to the power of Christ’s resurrection to break even the bonds of death.
We may never see the end results [of our work],
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
That is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water the seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide the yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. Amen!
-prayer often attributed to Oscar Romero;
written by Bishop Ken Untener
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